BANGALORE:Don’t have the money to pay tax? Don’t worry. This tax filing season, you can pay your Income Tax through credit cards. This is the first of its kind happening in India. About 4.5 lakh tax payers in Bangalore, of which, 37 per cent IT professionals will pay their taxes in Gayatri Vihar.

The Income Tax department is talking to different banks to bring in their credit card/debit card swipe machines.While, Axis Bank has confirmed this, the State Bank of India has to give its nod. Even cheques will be accepted to file I-T returns.

“There will be 90 counters and separate counters will be set up for banks, photocopy, NSDL and other help desks,” said B Arulappa, additional commissioner of the Income Tax Department. “This tax fair is for ITR 1 and ITR 2,” he said.

Arulappa said they were also liasioning with the BMTC for having a special stop near the venue. “We have requested the commissioner for a special Zebra Crossing in front of Palace Grounds,” he said. “The I-T Commissioner, P K Prasad is personally supervising the preparation,” said Arulappa.The parking space can accommodate at least 500 cars and 100 bikes at a time. There will also be personnel from the central processing centre to help people with online filing.

Its a good move to facilitate easy and secure payment of taxes to avoid hassels of going to bank and standing in que to pay last minute tax which may come to notice for small amount shortfalls or mistakes in calculation which irritate most in last minute rush hours of filing.

Since the IT Dept. is still discussing with the Banks, once it’s announced, it would be a welcome & a great step towards e-Tax payment options. Also a win- win for Both the IT Dept. & the Tax Payers!!!.

Good attempt, CBDT. Now can you think of payment of taxes through Debit Cards online, just like telephone bills or airline tickets so that an instant receipt is generated, and the govt gets instant credit?